Azure Automation: update them modules redux

I did some work on updating the Update-AzureAHybridWorkerModules script I previously published here. It was a very basic script that only updated modules on hybrid workers that had been installed by using Install-Module.

After thinking a bit, and becoming ever increasingly frustrated that we still do not have logic for automatically syncing modules installed in AA down to hybrid workers. I sat down to see if I could expand on the thoughts I implemented in the first script.

One of the major hurdles to achieve module sync between AA and hybrid workers, is that I found no PS backed API to retrieve the module bits imported into AA. The best I could do was get some metadata on the modules, like name and version. Though nothing about where it came from originally. So I knew this would be a blocker, and I needed a workaround.

The best I could do was make some assumptions, and one of these was that I assumed that most of the modules would come from PSGallery. I therefore implemented logic that would search for the modules in AA using PSGallery. This meant I needed to fetch name and version of each module in AA and search PSGallery for them. The drawback here is that usually there are only 4 version of most modules in the repository. If the modules in AA have not been updated in a while (older than the 4 version found in PSGallery), there would be no way of getting the module down to the hybrid worker.

So this is the first limitation of the new update script. So to combat this I added logic so one can use other repositories than PSGallery. Best case scenario here would be to set up a private repository that all the hybrid workers can access and have all modules used in AA here. Then have the script use this as the source to search for modules to install on the hybrid worker. So I added the logic to do this in.

Though I found that a bit limiting, so I then added the ability to use multiple repositories. The chevat here is that it becomes complicated fast to handle modules that are found in multiple repositories. So in this initial release it will use the repository with the newest version. If both have the same version it will choose the repository registered first (or the first one in the list retrieved using Get-PSRepository).

To add a new repository just run the Runbook once and set ModuleRepositoryName and ModuleSourceLocation to the desired repository. This will add it as a trusted repo to all hybrid workers.

Then either keep ModuleRepositoryName set to the same repo name (the new one added) for the scheduled runbook to only use this new repo, or set AllRepositories to $true for it to search for modules in both PSGallery and this new one.

So basically the new script can do the same as before, namly update modules on hybrid workers installed using Install-Module to the latest version. In addition it can now look at the modules installed in AA and try to find them in the registered trusted repos on hybrid workers and if it finds the same version, install this one. Though if it does not find the same version it will do nothing. To give some options I added the ability to install the newest version found in the repo instead by setting UpdateToNewestModule to $true.

After thinking some more I added the ability to only do one of the two main scenarios by manipulating UpdateOnly or SyncOnly. In case one does not want modules to always be updated to the latest all the time, or only process the modules found in AA. Though note setting both to true will make the script do nothing.

That’s a short intro to the new stuff. Take a look at the script for more information.

I will post two versions, one using AzureRM and one using Az instead. Though note Az will not be fully supported in AA before Q2 next year. But you can still use it on hybrid workers if AzureRM is removed . Though it is best to wait until it is fully supported in AA.

Update-AAHybridWorkerModules:

PowerShell

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

235

236

237

238

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

254

255

256

257

258

259

260

261

262

263

264

265

266

267

268

269

270

271

272

273

274

275

276

277

278

279

280

281

282

283

284

285

286

287

288

289

290

291

292

293

294

295

296

297

298

299

300

301

302

303

304

305

306

307

308

309

310

311

312

313

314

315

316

317

318

319

320

321

322

323

324

325

326

327

328

329

330

331

332

333

334

335

336

337

338

339

340

341

342

343

344

345

346

347

348

349

350

351

352

353

354

355

356

357

358

359

360

361

362

363

364

365

366

367

368

369

370

371

372

373

374

375

376

377

378

379

380

381

382

383

384

385

386

387

388

389

390

391

392

393

394

395

396

397

398

399

400

401

402

403

404

405

406

407

408

409

410

411

412

413

414

415

416

417

418

419

420

421

422

423

424

425

426

427

428

429

430

431

432

433

434

435

436

437

438

439

440

441

442

443

444

445

446

447

448

449

450

451

452

453

454

455

456

457

458

459

460

461

462

463

464

465

466

467

468

469

470

471

472

473

474

475

476

477

478

479

480

481

482

483

484

485

486

487

488

489

490

491

492

493

494

495

496

497

498

499

500

501

502

503

504

505

506

507

508

509

510

511

512

513

514

515

516

517

518

519

520

521

522

523

524

525

526

527

528

529

530

531

532

533

534

535

536

537

538

539

540

541

542

543

544

545

546

547

548

549

550

551

552

553

554

555

556

557

558

559

560

561

562

563

564

565

566

567

568

569

570

571

572

573

574

575

576

577

578

579

580

581

582

583

584

585

586

587

588

589

590

591

592

593

594

595

596

597

598

599

600

601

602

603

604

605

606

607

608

609

610

611

612

613

614

615

616

617

618

619

620

621

622

623

624

625

626

627

628

629

630

631

632

633

634

635

636

637

638

639

640

641

642

643

644

645

646

647

648

649

#Requires -Version 5.1

#Requires -Module AzureRM.Profile, AzureRM.Automation

Param(

[bool]$UpdateAllHybridGroups=$true,

[bool]$ForceInstallModule=$false,

[bool]$UpdateToNewestModule=$false,

[bool]$SyncOnly=$false,

[bool]$UpdateOnly=$false,

[bool]$AllRepositories=$false,

[String]$ModuleRepositoryName="PSGallery",

[String]$ModuleSourceLocation=""

)

<#

NAME: Update-AAHybridWorkerModules

AUTHOR: Morten Lerudjordet

EMAIL: code@lerun.info

DESCRIPTION:

This Runbook will check installed modules in AA account and attempt to download them from the configured trusted repositories on to the hybrid worker(s)

It can also update modules installed by local configured repositories(using Install-Module) to the newest version available.

The logic will not clean out older versions of modules.

The different behaviors are configurable by manipulating parameters of the Runbook, see the parameter description below for further details.

Note:

All manually uploaded (not available through repositories configurable through Register-PSRepository) modules to AA will not be handled by this Runbooks, and should be handled by other means

Run Get-InstalledModule in PS command window (not in ISE) to check that Repository variable is set to a configured and trusted repository

Warning:

The Runbook will automatically set PSGallery as a trusted repository on all workers on first run.

It is strongly recommended to set up a private repository to use for production.

PREREQUISITES:

Powershell version 5.1 on hybrid workers

Latest AzureRM & AzureRM.Automation module installed on hybrid workers for first time run using Install-Module from admin PS command line

Make sure AzureRM.Profile has repository equal to PSGallery (use Get-InstalledModule) to check, if not use Uninstall-Module and Install-Module

Azure Automation Assets:

AAresourceGroupName = Name of resourcegroup Azure Automation resides in

AAaccountName = Name of Azure Automation account

AAhybridWorkerAdminCredentials = Credential object that contains username & password for an account that is local admin on the hybrid worker(s).

If hybrid worker group contains more than one worker, the account must be allowed to do remoting to all workers.

.PARAMETER UpdateAllHybridGroups

If $true the Runbook will try to remote to all hybrid workers in every hybrid group attached to AA account

$false will only update the hybrid workers in the same hybrid group the update Runbook is running on

Default is $true

.PARAMETER ForceReinstallofModule

If $true the Runbook will try to force a uninstall-module and install-module if update-module fails

$false will not try to force reinstall of module

Default is $false

.PARAMETER UpdateToNewestModule

If $true the Runbook will install newest available module version if the version installed in Azure Automation is not available in repository

$false will not install the module at all on the hybrid worker if the same version as in AA is not available in repository

Default is $false

.PARAMETER SyncOnly

If $true the Runbook will only install the modules and version found in Azure Automation

$false will keep all modules on hybrid worker up to date with the latest found in the repository

Default is $false

.PARAMETER UpdateOnly

If $true the Runbook will only update already installed modules on the hybrid worker

$false will query AA for modules installed there and add the ones missing on the worker

Default is $false

.PARAMETER AllRepositories

If $true the Runbook will use all registered trusted repositories

$false will only use the repository set in ModuleRepositoryName variable

Default is $false

.PARAMETER ModuleRepositoryName

Name of repository to use

Default is PSGallery

.PARAMETER ModuleSourceLocation

URL of repository location. Set this parameter with the ModuleRepositoryName = the new repo to add.

Running the Runbook once will add the new repository to hybrid workers and sets it as trusted.

Then set AllRepositories = $true to make the Runbook search all repositories for adding modules from AA or updating them locally

#>

try

{

# just incase Requires does not work

if($PSVersionTable.PSVersion-lt5.1)

{

Write-Error-Message"Powershell version must be 5.1 or higher. Current version: $($PSVersionTable.PSVersion)"-ErrorActionStop